Possession was a tricky business, and I’d known that any control I acquired probably wouldn’t last long. But then, I hadn’t needed it to. I’d planned to have him order his men to stand down, thereby giving the cavalry in the form of the Silver Circle, who were already on the way, time to rescue our sorry asses. Only it hadn’t worked out that way.

As soon as I forced my way inside, I had found somebody else already in residence. Namely Ares, who’d possessed the guy—who did own a piece of that armor—before I had the chance. And three was most definitely a crowd.

He would have ripped me to pieces and feasted on my soul, except that Mircea had come to my aid. He hadn’t even been at the battle, but he’d used his mental powers to take on a god, distracting him just long enough for me to flee, because nobody had ever called Mircea a coward. I’d gotten away, although it had been a damned close call and one that still gave me nightmares, despite the fact that Ares was now dead.

But someone else wasn’t.

“You think Zeus tried the same ruse?” Gertie asked, after I explained. “Leaving something infused with his power behind?”

“I don’t know,” I said, and drank tea.

“Or that he is planning an assault like Ares?”

It took everything I had not to yell that I didn’t know that, either! And then to storm off and lick my wounds in private—the ones from today, from the past six months, from this whole crazy war. But I stayed put.

We were past the point where running helped anything at all.

“Zeus can’t kill me; he isn’t here,” I said instead, my voice surprisingly steady. “Apollo managed to get through Artemis’s barrier, half frying himself in the process, and came after me for revenge. For his part, Ares attacked me because he planned on returning to Earth in the past, when no one would be expecting him, and needed to kill off the only time traveler who might warn anyone. But otherwise, he could have given a crap about me.” I looked at her. “So why does Zeus?”

Gertie drank tea. “That, my dear, is what we must determine.”

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

I don’t like this,” Rhea said, as the wind tossed her still unbound hair around.

Join the club, I didn’t say, because I was Pythia. I was supposed to be fearless, calm and resolute. A daunting leader for the ages.

Or to fake it ‘til I made it, only making it was taking a while.